IOC Head Hoping to Avert Boycott of ’88 Games : Samaranch Believes He Can Bring North and South Korea Together in Seoul

International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch is using his seasoned diplomatic skills to try to avert a North Korean boycott of the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea.

Samaranch, whose foreign service career included the post of Spanish ambassador to Moscow, will mediate between the two rivals when they meet under IOC auspices at Lausanne, Switzerland, Oct. 8-9 to discuss North Korea’s participation in the Seoul Games.

“Knowing the positions of both sides, I think I can make good proposals at the meeting,” Samaranch told reporters during a visit in August to Seoul. “I am optimistic.”

But political observers doubt he will succeed in finding a formula that would satisfy Pyongyang’s qualms about sending a national sports team to a country it does not recognize and regards as its foremost political enemy.

North Korea, mindful of the international prestige and recognition South Korea stands to gain by being host to the world’s premier sporting extravaganza, has said it will not attend unless it can co-host the Games under the title of the “Korean Olympiad” or “Pyongyang-Seoul Korea Olympiad.”

North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Chung Jun Gi, announcing the boycott threat July 30, contended co-sponsorship is needed to assure participation by the Soviet Union and other communist countries.

Seoul rejected the proposal, as has Samaranch.

“There is no possibility of splitting the Games. The best condition for North Korea is to say ‘yes’ to participate in the Games (in Seoul),” Samaranch said in an interview Aug. 24 in Kobe, Japan, where he attended the World University Games.

He also said he does not think the Soviet Union and other East European countries would stay away from another Olympics after boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Samaranch began his salvage mission this summer with a month-long visit to Moscow, where he held talks with Soviet officials and met with North Korean IOC member Kim Yu Sun to discuss his government’s position on the Seoul Games.

The IOC chief then traveled to Seoul in late August for talks on possible concessions South Korean might make that would avert a North Korean boycott.

“We must afford the best of conditions that can be accepted by North Korea,” Samaranch said at the end of his South Korean visit.

Samaranch refused to disclose what plans he would offer in Lausanne, but hinted he would propose that some Olympic events be held in Pyongyang.

The suggestion, however, would violate the IOC charter, which calls for all Olympic competition to be staged in one nation under the sponsorship of the host country’s national Olympic committee.

South and North Korea have separate national Olympic committees.

Samaranch, however, obliquely pointed out that some soccer preliminaries were held in eastern U.S. cities during the Los Angeles games.

Seoul sources said another proposal being considered by Samaranch calls for both sides’ teams to carry “a neutral flag” instead of their own national flags during the Games.

South Korean officials said the Lausanne meeting will focus on the questions of “cross-border” events, the use of “a neutral flag” as well as a southern proposal for the formation of a team representing both Koreas.

On the question of “cross-border” events, the officials appeared receptive to the idea of staging some competition in the north, but were clearly opposed to transfering major events to Pyongyang.

“Some of the qualifying matches in the soccer competition could be held in North Korea and also, perhaps, something like table tennis,” Sports Minister Lee Yong Ho told UPI.

The 1979 world table tennis championships were held in Pyongyang, but South Korean players were refused entry visas.

“Staging some events in North Korea would be a way of saving face for them,” Lee added, referring to his government’s rejection of Pyongyang’s co-sponsorship proposal.

Lee said there was a number of reasons why Seoul could not agree to the plan, including its selection as the venue of the 1988 Olympics, which was repeatedly confirmed by the IOC’s 88th, 89th and 90th general meetings. He said the northern demand was a clear challenge to the IOC charter.

Lee also pointed out that the construction of facilities is in the final stage and other preparations, such as the selection of event sites and timetables, are almost complete.

He emphasized that South Korea has repeatedly stated that all countries, irrespective of political ideologies, will be invited to the Seoul Olympics.

The scheduled participation of the Soviet Union, East Germany and other socialist countries in world judo and archery championships in Seoul this month clearly supports South Korea’s open-door policy, he said.

Lee went on to point out that the IOC charter stipulates the Olympics must open in a city in the host country. The Games can only be held in separate cities, even in the host country, if the IOC agrees.

The joint sponsorship demanded by North Korea is a theory never actually practiced, he said, adding that preparing for the Games is time-consuming and it would be nearly impossible to make the necessary arrangements by 1988.